Posts Tagged ‘industry-research-tag’

Disruption and Opportunity for Service Providers as Services Evolve with 5G

BOSTON, July 14, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — 5G will usher in a new era with new players disrupting the current service provider landscape, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics’ Wireless Operator Strategies service, “Mobile Service Evolution on the Road to 5G.” These new players will compete with traditional service providers to offer new “as a service” business models and network slicing for dynamic on-demand, service specific network provisioning to address the needs of particular use cases and services.

5G is envisioned to open up a wide range of new services, use cases and business models, both ones that have been depicted today and new ones still not imagined. Strategy Analytics examines the rich service roadmap on the path to 5G as well as the disruption and opportunity that comes with a new generation of technology advancement—and provides guidance to service providers and vendors.

Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Director Wireless Operator Strategies and author of the report says, “5G not only enhances current services and enables new ones—it opens doors for new disruptive market leaders. With 5G, who offers service and how services are packaged will shift, as 5G will enable not only new services and new business models but also new types of service providers, such as digital virtual network operators (DVNOs) – an evolution of the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). DVNOs will be able to leverage ‘network slicing’ from 5G network operators’ platforms to spin up new network slices – using self-provisioning – to offer specific services for targeted verticals and/or consumers, bundling access and performance requirements with managed services for each specific segment of users.”

Guang Yang, Senior Analyst Wireless Operator Strategies explains that 5G is part of a ten year service and network evolution from 4G to 5G. “The development and deployment of 5G enables new services, new business models and new players—and will occur alongside further developments and investments in 4G /4.5G and Wi-Fi. As 5G standards and technologies evolve, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi will continue to be the active network powerhouses well into the next decade—and both offer a rich set of enhancements that will drive service evolution alongside 5G development and that will contribute to the 5G evolution.”

The wireless industry – particularly the 4G/ long-term evolution (LTE) segment – offers immense opportunities for communication test service providers globally. Testing as a service, which is a more cost-effective option than purchasing test equipment, has gained momentum in Europe after the economic downturn. The communication test services markets in North America and Asia-Pacific have also witnessed significant traction.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Global Communication Test Services Market, finds that the market earned revenues of $604.5 million in 2013 and estimates this to reach $993.6 million in 2020. The study covers application layer, broadband wireless, security and broadband wire line test services.

However, end-users lack knowledge on communication test services, which has long hindered market growth. While it is difficult for vendors to sell test equipment due to the lack of awareness, it is even more difficult to promote test services, as these require an understanding of the benefits of testing and an appreciation of its importance. To counter this, educating and training end users on the necessity to test communication devices should be a key focus for vendors.

“As end users expect quantifiable data to ascertain the impact new technologies will have on their business, the adoption of communication test services will pick up pace,” noted Sami. “Customers recognize that streamlining the communication process is important and, thus, vendors offering holistic solutions that can test and validate data will attract many customers. Another way to increase market presence would be to build intelligence into communication systems and make them more user-friendly so that experts will no longer be required to run tests.”

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According to a newly published Carrier Economics report by Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, telecom operators around the world invested heavily in their fiber and LTE networks in 1H14 as the transformation from voice-centric to data-centric drivers continued. Dell’Oro Group estimates worldwide Capex advanced at a mid-single digit rate in 1H14. Double-digit growth in mobile network infrastructure significantly outpaced the low single-digit growth in service revenues.

“While we maintain our view that worldwide Capex will grow around 3% in 2014, we believe multiple factors will contribute to a decline in Capex during 2015,” said Stefan Pongratz, Dell’Oro Group’s Carrier Economics analyst. “Higher device penetration, decelerating mobile data growth rates, lack of new revenue streams, and increased competition in both the developing and developed markets have caused worldwide revenue growth to decelerate in the last couple of years. Slower growth in service revenues coupled with the rapid network progress during 2014 in China, North America, Japan, and Europe will also put some pressure on worldwide Capex upside in 2015,” continued Pongratz.

Other Dell’Oro Group Carrier Economics Report highlights:

The amount of mobile Capex required to support incremental mobile data usage has declined more than 50% per year since the smartphone boom started.
Fiber and LTE coverage build-outs will continue to drive telecom equipment investments in 2H14 and 2015. The proportion of Capex that will be allocated to new technology enablers and network topologies including NFV and small cells is expected to be negligible over the next six quarters.
About the Reports

As the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, Dell’Oro Group provides in-depth, objective research and analysis that enables component manufacturers, equipment vendors, and investment firms to make fact-based, strategic decisions. For more information, contact Dell’Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.DellOro.com.

Telecom market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest Small Cell Equipment market size and forecast report, which tracks 3G microcells, picocells, and metrocells and LTE mini eNodeBs and metrocells.

Analyst Notes

“As we anticipated, the great small cell ramp did not happen in 2013 as many in the industry had hoped. Testing activity remained solid, but actual deployments were modest. Small cell revenue was just $771 million last year, a sharp contrast to the $24 billion 2G/3G RAN market,” reports Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.

Richard Webb, directing analyst for mobile backhaul and small cells at Infonetics and co-author of the report, adds: “Nevertheless, the need to enhance existing saturated macrocellular networks that are struggling to maintain a decent mobile broadband experience, as well as to add capacity to existing LTE networks, is bringing some fuel to our forecast and, consequently, we expect the small cell market to grow 65% by year’s end, when it will reach $1.3 billion.”

Small Cell Market Highlights

As mobile operators have to approach a “critical mass” of data traffic before small cells even become a consideration, it is the developed countries (Japan, South Korea, the UK and US) that are driving early adoption

642,000 small cell units shipped in 2013, a 143% spike from 2012; over half of these units are of the 3G variety

However, starting this year, 4G metrocells will close the gap with 3G, becoming the main growth engine

Backhaul is no longer a major inhibitor to small cell deployment, but it will remain an issue for some mobile operators due to the locations in which they operate

5G is coming, fully loaded with small cells: NTT DOCOMO in Japan plans to have 5G commercially available in 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympics

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively. View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.

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Infonetics Research

The first generation of LTE carrier aggregation is deployed by only a handful of operators thus far, enabling users to enjoy up to 150 Mbps bandwidth. However, key chipset suppliers are already stretching their muscles for the next-generation modems that will enable speeds of up to 300 Mbps, namely Cat 6 basebands.

At MWC this year, virtually all the leading players were vocal about their progress in achieving mobile broadband speeds exceeding 150 Mbps. Huawei, ZTE, and Samsung have gone one step further by announcing the first commercial devices enabling up to 300 Mbps, namely:

Huawei E5686, a Wi-Fi 802.11ac mobile hotspot backhauled by LTE, enabling mobile broadband connectivity to up to 10 users. A variant of this device will be used by Telstra in Austria under the name of Advanced Pro X.

ZTE Flare, is a dual band Wi-Fi 802.11ac backhauled by LTE, enabling mobile broadband connectivity to up to 32 users. The device is powered by Qualcomm’s Gobi 9×35, and is expected to be available by the end of 2014. ZTE is conducting early tests over the CSL network in Hong Kong.

Samsung demoed a Cat 6 over a special variant of its Galaxy Note 3, using the Qualcomm Gobi 9×35 modem. It is understood that this device will initially run on SK Telecom network only.

So far Qualcomm has been well ahead of competition when it comes to supplying LTE chips for mobile devices. The company maintained its leadership across several generations of LTE, but with the emergence of Cat 6, it looks like Qualcomm will no longer monopolize the race for high-speed LTE modems.

Yes, Qualcomm was the first IC supplier to announce a commercial LTE Cat 6 platform based on Gobi 9×35 modem and its RF transceiver WTR3925. The chip is targeted at computing devices with embedded connectivity including notebooks, tablets, and Wi-Fi LTE mobile hotspots. The company is already shipping this chip to key clients with commercial products anticipated for the end of the year.
A number of rivals have also announced chips with Cat 6 capabilities. Intel revealed its first LTE Cat 6 at the show, XMM™ 7260, which supports up to 17 LTE FDD bands and 5 TDD bands in a single SKU. The company is confident this will be shipping in 2H 2014 with multiple design wins in the pipeline.

Broadcom is another chip maker showing its LTE Cat 6 muscles. The company said it managed to successfully test a reference design smartphone using its LTE Cat 6 technology over the commercial LTE network of the Finnish operator, Elisa. The test was conducted by aggregating a 20 MHz channel in band 3 (1800 MHz) and another 20 MHz in band 7 (2600 MHz).

Sequans, on the other hand, did showcase its Cassiopeia, a new LTE platform capable of combining contiguous and non-contiguous LTE bands to achieve speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The chip comes in the form of the company’s SQN3220 SoC integrating baseband unit, an application processor unit, and a multi-band transceiver. This chip is expected to be commercially available in 2H 2014. Altair did also show an LTE Cat 6 chip with similar capabilities, which should also be available in 2H 2014. MediaTek, Nvidia, and Marvell have so far been less vocal about Cat 6.

This development simply shows that some chipset manufacturers are well ahead of the game, as they are already preparing their LTE Cat 6 platforms, while operators are not yet launching commercial networks that will allow users to enjoy the 300 Mbps promised by Cat 6 modems. ABI Research does not expect the first commercial services offering 300 Mbps bandwidth before 2015; with an exception to this rule being Korea, where 150 Mbps services are already deployed, and operators in the region are preparing for the launch of 300 Mbps.

Japanese and European operators, initially NTT DoCoMo, EE, Vodafone, and Optimus will potentially follow soon after due to availability of 20 MHz carriers in these regions. However, it could take time for American consumers to enjoy speeds of up to 300 Mbps because of the lack of enabling spectrum. So, the majority of these players will have to wait for triple carrier aggregation to mature before achieving this kind of speed.

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ABI Research

ABI Research’s latest forecast for Outdoor Small Cells indicates a healthy 2014 growth in equipment revenue at a year-on-year rate of 33% to $1.8 billion. This growth comes thanks to operators like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Telefonica, Softbank, SK Telecom, and Sprint driving shipments of both outdoor and Metrocell deployments.

“As mobile network operators implement small cell outdoor networks, several success factors emerge as critical for a successful deployment,” says Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research. “We see multiple solutions for backhaul, power, permitting, and siting employed by the operator community throughout the rest of 2014 and which will increase small cell momentum in 2015.”

In 2014, 4G small cells are the fastest growing small cell type in the market driven by venue and dense urban deployments. ABI Research forecasts the number of LTE small cells to grow by 2X in 2014 and by a similar factor each year through 2019 where the value of LTE small cells will reach more than half of a $10 billion equipment market.

“2013 was supposed to be the year for greater deployments of outdoor small cells, but installations haven’t proceeded as quickly as operators expected. It’s no picnic out there for operators. Costs are higher than anticipated, and many challenges remain difficult to solve, including siting, jurisdictional issues, unsettled local regulations, power availability, copper and fiber availability, small cell packaging with or without backhaul, just-coming-available technologies and products, and backhaul connections. Not to mention the coordination of small cells with WiFi or nearby macrocells over new types of backhaul that must support strict timing, sync, and latency requirements for LTE and LTE-Advanced in the future,” explains Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst for carrier networks at Infonetics Research.

Richard Webb, Infonetics’ directing analyst for mobile backhaul and small cells, adds: “This is in line with our recent forecast in which we project that operators will spend $3.6 billion on outdoor small cell backhaul equipment over the five years from 2013 to 2017, down from earlier forecasts based on operator plans.”

SMALL CELL AND LTE BACKHAUL SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

Operators are finding that outdoor small cell deployments are more expensive than anticipated: more respondents now expect the 5-year TCO ratio of a small cell deployment to be 25% of a typical macrocell deployment, up from 10% in Infonetics’ 2012 survey

There is a big opportunity for point-to-multipoint (P2MP) backhaul topology in dense urban areas, but there are only a few manufacturers shipping P2MP products today: BluWan, Cambridge Broadband, and Intracom

1/4 of operators surveyed indicated they will use software-defined networking (SDN) in outdoor small cell backhaul networks by 2016 or later

For its 35-page small cell and LTE backhaul survey, published in January 2014, Infonetics interviewed purchase-decision makers at 20 incumbent, independent wireless, competitive, and cable operators from EMEA, Asia Pacific, and North America about their current and future plans for small cell and macrocell backhaul. The study provides insights into mobile traffic handling and specific backhaul issues related to outdoor small cells, in-building small cells, and macrocells (including LTE and LTE-A). The operators participating in the study control 46% of the world’s telecom capex. To buy the survey, contact Infonetics: http://www.infonetics.com/contact.asp.

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ABOUT INFONETICS

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively. View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.

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Infonetics Research

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its recent Mobile Backhaul Wireline Equipment Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey, which explores operators’ perceptions of mobile backhaul wireline equipment suppliers and includes carriers’ rankings of small cell backhaul equipment manufacturers.

ANALYST NOTES
"Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and Cisco have been the leaders in mobile backhaul router revenue market share for the past several years, and in our latest mobile backhaul survey, they’re also our operator respondents’ top picks for wireline mobile backhaul equipment supplier, besting the rest of the field in all 11 of the criteria that service providers use to select vendors,"
notes Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst, carrier networks, at Infonetics Research.

"In the case of Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei, this is no doubt due to their status as ‘full service’ RAN and mobile backhaul suppliers," adds Richard Webb, Infonetics’ directing analyst for mobile backhaul and small cells.

MOBILE BACKHAUL SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

The most important criteria when choosing a wireline (non-microwave) backhaul supplier are related to squeezing the most value out of capex: total cost of ownership (TCO), pricing, and product reliability

Infonetics estimates there were just over 6 million macrocell backhaul physical connections at 3 million cell sites around the world in 2013, with 45% using wireline backhaul technology, and 55% employing microwave

For the first time in an Infonetics study, operators named the top 3 small cell backhaul equipment manufacturers: Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Huawei (listed in alphabetical order)

The outdoor small cell backhaul equipment segment is forecast by Infonetics to be a $3.6 billion cumulative market from 2013 to 2017 (see "Outdoor small cell backhaul equipment expected to reach critical mass in
2015")

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100G in the Metro: When and Where It Will Be Economical (View on-demand)

ABOUT INFONETICS
Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete effectively.
View Infonetics’ About Us slides at http://bit.ly/QUrbrV.

Contact Information

Infonetics Research

ABI Research estimates US$ 1.4 billion worth of LTE-capable antennas were shipped in 2013. This is equivalent to 1.89 million antennas with expected growth to 3.14 million in 2018. A large part of this growth in sales is being primed by the need for Multiple In, Multiple Out (MIMO) antennas which is a key ingredient to make LTE, and LTE-Advanced in particular, ultra-fast. Furthermore, the clamor for additional LTE spectrum bands is encouraging operators to invest for the long-term by selecting multi-band and ultrawide-band antennas. From 2014, the proportion of LTE-antennas shipped that will be multi-band will grow markedly, from 30% to 68% in 2018.

Competition in the antenna segment has been heating up recently. Historically the sector has been dominated by Kathrein and CommScope (Andrew); however, Huawei has been methodically able to build up base station relationships with operators in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and Africa which include utilizing its own antennas.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.

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ABI Research

Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest SMS/MMS Security Gateways, market size and forecasts report, which tracks short message service (SMS) and multimedia messaging service (MMS) security hardware and software, such as SMS firewalls and mobile messaging security platforms.

ANALYST NOTE

“The popularity of SMS and MMS has soared over the last decade, but carriers around the globe are just now beginning to seriously evaluate and deploy mobile messaging security solutions, forced by economic, regulatory, and attack conditions,” notes Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research.

Continues Wilson: “A trend we’re seeing as a result of regulatory pressure is major carriers in a region looking at SMS/MMS security solutions as a group and selecting a single vendor or technology, causing initial adoption to happen at once in that country or region, like Cloudmark/TeleDNA’s recent deployment in India.”

MOBILE MESSAGING SECURITY MARKET HIGHLIGHTS

Around 10 trillion SMS/MMS messages are generated annually, opening up new opportunities for spammers and hackers

As a result, carriers are stepping up spending on security gateway solutions designed to combat SMS/MMS spam and threats

For the full year 2013, the global SMS/MMS security gateway market is projected to reach $70 million, a 70% increase over 2012

Cloudmark, which closed out 2013 particularly strong, and AdaptiveMobile are the current revenue leaders in the SMS/MMS security gateway space

Infonetics expects the next 12 months to bring consolidation to the SMS/MMS security gateway industry, with major networking/telecom equipment suppliers and focused network security players entering the fray

Worldwide, the SMS/MMS security gateway market is forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 56% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2012 to 2017

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively. View Infonetics’ brief

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